LET’S GET SOCIAL: CONTENT IDEAS FOR THE TIME-POOR

If you’re in biz, chances are you already know that social media is one of the most powerful ways to share your brand identity, connect with your consumers and showcase your products and services.

The thing is though, that social media is fast-moving and ever-changing and so it can be hard to stay ahead of the game when it comes to successfully marketing your biz through the many platforms.

That’s why we’re calling in our resident social media guru Chloe Waugh, of Social Media Creative, to bring our tribe a monthly series on this very hot topic.

Over the next few months, Chloe is going to share with you some valuable insight, tips and tricks on everything from using Snapchat and Instagram for biz to optimising Facebook ads, increasing organic Facebook reach, encouraging authentic community growth, running a business from home and working with influencers to grow your brand.

Last month, she gifted us all with 5 Prompts For Using Snapchat For Business, and today, she’s offering all the busy bloggers, entrepreneurs, creatives, biz owners and brands in our tribe some hot tips on how to share valuable, authentic social media content — when time is of the essence.

I am always so inspired by the motivated and dedicated women out there doing their own thing. If you are too, it might mean blogging on the side of your 9-5 job, hustling at the weekend markets with your hand-made goods, or running an online store. Whichever path you are taking, if your journey and version of success include running a business, there is a good chance that the little time you have is precious.

So when it comes to your social media, it is super important to be productive and time-efficient, whilst still producing authentic, brand-aligned content that will drive traffic to your site and hopefully increase your sales and/or client base.

Sourcing, creating and posting quality content that is in line with the values of your brand takes time and forethought, so below I am sharing with you some ideas and tips on ensuring that what you are putting out there on social media is only going to have a positive impact on your business.

Know your brand values and strategy inside-out

In order to deliver great content, it is really important to have a strategy plan in place for your social media. You need to know your specific objectives, long-term goals, have a vision for your business and know how you are going to get there. Having a clear direction will allow you to shape your content around that. It will also help to keep you motivated.

What your brand values as a business is really important — not only when it comes to curating and publishing content, but also in how you communicate daily with your followers.

Your messages, comments, and responses to follower and customer questions all need to reflect these values. Knowing these values (customer service, product quality, sustainability etc.) will also help you in sourcing and creating content, from written blog posts to sharing links on Facebook.

Work out and list the types of content you are going to deliver each week

What types of content will you share with your audience? Consider the following suggestions:

News stories: research shows that people tune into Facebook for news and events happening near and far. Will sharing a link to a breaking story work for your brand?

Product updates: share new arrivals, product reviews and testimonials

Promotional posts: share news about sales, discount codes and other store or service promotions with your audience

Educational posts: can you give your audience some insights into your products, services and the background and story of your brand? Can you share some valuable, educational posts that will build trust in your business?

When it comes to the type of content that you share, I recommend using the 80/20 rule as a guideline. Think 80% value, entertainment and education to enrich the news feed of your follower. Then, mix it up with 20% promotional posts about your products and services. The key here is to ditch the hard sell and be more social with your community.

Batch process

Set aside one day a week for a couple of hours to work in batches to collect, write, design and schedule content for your social media channels. If you have considered and worked on the steps above, you should be clear on the types of content and the value you plan to share with your audience, now it is just a matter of pulling it all together.

As a busy business owner or blogger, your time is of the essence. Batch processing is a great way to free yourself up for the rest of the week, giving you time to connect and engage with your audience, as well as get onto other tasks that might need your attention.

So carve out the time to schedule your content. If you aren’t in the position to subscribe to social media software, schedule your posts within Facebook Pages and check out Plann which is a great visual planner for Instagram.

Take advantage of apps for content creation

There are plenty of free, effective apps that you can use to create original, on-brand content for your networks. Working in with your batch processing, gather testimonials, inspirational and motivational quotes, tips and tricks relevant to your audience and any other photos or images that you might want to add some branding or copy to.

Have some fun with experimenting and getting your look just right, then save your template for easy future use. Below are some suggestions that we use at Social Media Creative for you to try:

Re-use content that was popular in the past

If you have a blog that you write content for, why not look back and share good quality posts again on social media? Just because you have shared it as a post before, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t share it again. If a particular post received a great deal of attention, comments, shares or views, use it as a starting point and schedule to share again.

Writing an evergreen blog post means that it will remain relevant and will be able to be reused, so consider this in future when you are planning blog content.

You could also copy snippets from popular posts and other areas of your website to share with your audience, adding a link (if on Twitter or Facebook) to drive traffic back to your site.

Don’t forget to check in

Just because you have batch processed and scheduled a week or so worth of posts, doesn’t mean you can set and forget. Be sure to check your networks daily, to tune in with not only your community, but also what is going on online. Latest news, trending stories, celebrity updates and other viral content is going to be beneficial for you to share, just ensure that it is in line with your brand values and theme. Sharing irrelevant, unrelated content isn’t going to benefit your business.

Do you have any tips for sharing valuable content in an efficient way? Share with us in the comments below!